You are here

One inning rain of runs hurts Pilgrims

PLYMOUTH — Plymouth’s Pilgrims beat Mother Nature’s rain but couldn’t hold off Concord’s rain of runs as they fell in an NLC contest by a 12-0 final Wednesday.
While the final speaks of something different, the game really focused on one play — a third inning bunt that turned into a flood of runs that would put Plymouth behind the eight ball for the rest of the night — literally.
“In the paper it’s going to look like we gave up twelve runs, and that play never existed,” said Plymouth head coach Ryan Wolfe. “But on the baseball field those plays count. They wanted one run, and that’s not what happened.”
A third inning bunt by Concord’s Dallas Maynard to move up a runner turned into a nightmare as the Pilgrims made a play on the lead runner at second rather than taking the more solid out at first. The result was an eight-run third that was really the story of the game.
“Riley (Cartwright the Pilgrim starting pitcher) was going along fine there. He had a four-pitch second inning; you hardly ever see that,” said Wolfe. “They get a guy on and they try to bunt him to second, and it balloons from there. When they give you outs you have to take them. They couple four or five hits in that inning, it leads to an eight spot. You have to put something together to come back from that, and that’s tough.”
It was really all the Minutemen (3-1) were able to put together. Concord was able to put four more on the board with a Mason Eldridge three-run homer off Joe Dragani in the sixth, but nothing else.
Meanwhile the Pilgrims had a tough time with the veteran pitching tandem of Connor Slabach and Brandon Kirkendall. The pair gave up just three hits in the game.
“Our goal was to score in the first inning even if we had to bunt Riley early, and what happens? They turn two,” said Wolfe. “That killed us. That’s the ball game.”
“I have to say that it’s moving the right direction,” said Wolfe. “We go from four errors per game to none tonight. Other than the one inning Riley pitched well. He made some pitches when he needed to. One of these days we’ll put it together.”
The Pilgrims (2-5) have no time to rest with a road game at Logansport on Thursday.
• CONCORD 12,
PLYMOUTH 0 (6 inn.)
At Plymouth
Concord: 008 004 — 12 10 2
Plymouth: 000 000 — 0 3 0
Connor Slabach (2-0), Brandon Kirkendall (6) and Mason Eldridge; Riley Cartwright (0-2), Joe Dragani (6) and Elijah Nixon.
2B: Duncan Boone (C), Justin Drudge (P), Trent Briles (P).
HR: Eldridge (C).
JV score: Concord 12, Plymouth 8